Have a Heart - well...

Two varmints in one day; a record for the hollar. Not much heart in it, however, as rabbit was delicious curry dinner; this ground hog will just be buzzard food. Can't exactly relocate a groundhog; nobody wants one - at least I can't imagine. I will leave town a bit less anxious about the garden; although I know there are many more rabbits about.

I caught a rabbit

I had so given up on the Have a Heart trap that I had placed bird netting over the sweet potatoes and beans - but low this morning "Bunny Dinner" was in the trap! I stuck the carrot in to try to amuse him while waiting for death. He's going to be dinner thanks to Baldwin's careful execution, skinning and gutting.

What Was I Thinking

It was a bit cooler and certainly improved the peripheral vision, however, the cow head perched a bit high - besides it might have been better to be unrecognizable. Riner cow in Blacksburg parade! It is almost as if a separate part of me decided to join the Montgomery County Democrats for the 4th of July parade in this costume. That rooster segment, the one that just has to be different when everyone else wore the blue WOMEN FOR OBAMA t-shirts. I suspect that part of me is most likely to arise when seriousness veers towards the dull - and I am prompted to make fun. Nevertheless, it was a terribly HOT time - I poured a cold bottle of water over myself at the end - with little relief.

Squash Galore

Luckily my squash has come in relatively early and I distributed a bag full at Qigong this morning. I dare not complain and thanks to a phone call to Fred I have a back up plan for my newly planted beans to protect them from the rabbit/groundhog while I am in Houston, plastic bird netting. My thought is to cut it in generous size to place over the beans; Fred says that the critters dare not walk over it for fear of tangling their feet in the mesh. I hope this proves true. 

I have the notion, prompted by said referenced conversation above, that my blog is boring. No doubt this is the case as I have been prompted to account for items which I wish to remember. For instance, this morning I buried pennies by tomato plants in the garden - hoping that the copper might prove anti bacterial to the plant. It works for humans, why not plants, I thought! A penny held against in insect bite can take away the sting, for a tick bite, it can stop the infection that has caused an itch! It is an experiment. And here's a picture of two great souls of the hollar!

summer

The garden is beyond its historical self and green tomatoes dangle amid the thickened tomato plants - all of which I have had to secure with stakes after the high winds. My summer squash has been bountiful - I eat one in my morning green smoothie and saute squash for dinner and I've brought a bag to qigong class to give away! This plants are huge mocking the pathetic plants last year which were eaten by stink bugs. I've an interloper however, a ground hog whom I have failed to trap in my save a heart. I suspect I need to try Pink's suggestion of baiting the trap with cantaloupe.

baby baby

It is hot and much of Montgomery County is still without electricity, needless to say, Giles County and much of West Virginia remain hot (without fans hot)! I know what that is like, but fortunately my power returned after 24 hours. On last Friday, June 29, a very wide front, furious from record heat, in the evening blackened the sky with 60 to 75 mile winds. We got no rain, mercifully no hail. Just direct wind which knocked out power from Maryland to DC and down throughout Virginia and West Virginia. The tops of trees nearly touched the ground, some stayed down. We were lucky, just branches in the yard. Stories at qigong this morning: a neighbor was lifted in the air attempting to close a deck umbrella, another neighbor spent the night at her sister's as trees fell across the road, someone else lost their heirloom apple trees. 


On a much cheerier note, I've pictures of baby baby!

 

John

John died Saturday, June 23.

He wanted to hug and touch. I grew tired of that. I wanted compliments and talk. Twenty years we lived together, though the last five were more convenience than couple, longer a pair than we'd been with any others. My old farm house thrived, we built a studio and a shop. I stopped smoking 17 years ago egged on in part by his "old people can't stop!" He never did and it slowly conspired to bring him down. 
We split over care for my father. John moved to Ocean Springs without my input. It was past time to split, he was right. And it seemed a good plan for my dad, only John grew very ill, hardly able to leave his room. My father died; John has suffered over a year longer - fortunately under the dear care of his daughters. 
I learned how to kill a chicken. I learned about building from footers to roof beams. I learned to abide pintos and mashed potatoes in stead of red beans and rice. I grew fond of butter milk poured over corn bread. But I never liked his Thanksgiving stuffing! 
Enough, I want to go work in the garden before it grows too warm; I will come back to this! 
Walked to the swimming hole thinking of wild mushrooms, thinking of the fun John and I had in the fall looking for mushrooms. Found what I call a "red hairy", suillus pictus", and marked the spot so that I would find it on the way home. Walking home I found another and Baldwin found another - so I've a celebration dinner in John's memory tonight.

Furthermore, John set the standard for blackberry picking; I can see him in a flannel shirt, his old work pants, belt around his neck with a bucket cut from a milk jug - setting out early in the morning for the bottoms. He had pretty good nerves, drove a dynamite truck all over West Virginia for the mines (lots of two lane roads which consisted of one center paved lane and fairly wide gravel shoulders). I must have grown more volatile than dynamite. 

John could sit in a chair in the shade of a tree with his shot gun waiting for the ground hog to show. He was an amazing shot. He shot a wounded deer in the river, in the fog. Baldwin had run home to tell us that he had just been joined on the logging road by a limping deer who veered off into the river. John hustled fast and we got to the river in time to see the deer trying to cross. 

About the time that John's ashes were being interred in Beckley, Elizabeth sang "July, July" - a song she wrote which had us in tears at Ann's while reading through our show. Borrowing from Elizabeth's lyrics, John did a good job in his life. As Mindy said, "he taught Baldwin how to build." Ezra, tonight, added, "he was great to play golf with!" (He saved Fred's (my second x-husband) life on the golf course!). He was a fine masseuse. 
Need to toast him with some Jack!